


Of All The Things My Hands Have Held

by cecilia095



Category: New Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 04:41:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5854627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilia095/pseuds/cecilia095
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone's got a soulmate story. <b>AU.</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	Of All The Things My Hands Have Held

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set in a crazy little universe where everyone has a soulmate, and your soulmate's initials become tattooed on your wrist when you're ready to find them. But are THEY ready to find YOU? Dun dun dun...
> 
> Thanks to my RL best friend/idea (wo)man for this prompt. We were sitting in her car thinking of ideas for my next fic and then she said, "YOU'VE NEVER DONE A SOULMATE AU?!" and bam. This was born. Thank you always babe. <3
> 
> \--
> 
> The title comes from 'Cecilia and the Satellite' by Andrew McMahon.

_Twelve Years Ago_

They're twelve, so they're  _ready_ to hear the story --  _THE story_ \--, they swear they are.

Jess's mom makes them cookies, and then forces them to drink milk because they're 'growing girls' and -- ' _Jessica, you can make that face all you want at the glass, but what kind of mom would I be if I let you have soda?_ '. 

"A cool one. Now will you tell us the story?" Jess asks as she takes a gulp of milk.

Cece bites into a cookie and says, "Yeah. When did Mr. Day's initials appear, anyway?" She's even more curious than Jess, because even though there they are, her dad's initials tattooed onto her mom's wrist and her mom's on her dad's, Mrs. Parekh likes to say, ' _Nonsense, Cecelia. It's all a myth. People don't have soulmates. We just have people._ '.

But Cece's twelve now, and Jess is twelve too, and they  _really_ want to be Mrs. Day's age because life seems a lot more fun when that tattoo appears on your wrist.

"So I was twenty-eight, in a bar, all by myself, and then his name was just... there..."

—

Cece's shows up first.

They're twenty-four when it happens. Jess is in the living room grading papers, and Cece yelps, and then Jess looks up and says, "What?!"

"My soulmate," she says like she's scared, and then she runs over to the couch with her slender wrist stretched out in Jess's face. "Why does it just say 'S'?"

Jess wrinkles her nose. Huh. She's never seen anything like it. From all the Soulmate Stories she's been told - and  _believe her_ , everyone's got a soulmate story - they all had two letters. Some even three. Jess grabs Cece's wrist and starts to laugh. "Maybe Sadie's your soulmate," she says as a joke, and Cece grunts.

"Sadie has a last name," Cece points out.

"Maybe it's someone famous!", Jess says, all wide-eyed, and Cece's quick to shut her down. "Whoever it is, he's probably looking for you too, so don't even sweat it."

—

It's hard guessing who your soulmate is when your tattoo never shows up, so you kind of just have to pretend you have it figured out for yourself.

Jess is twenty-five when she meets Spencer, and he doesn't have a tattoo either, but he has nice hair and he's eco-conscious and he tells her he'll give her everything once he, "makes it as an artist".

They last shy of two years, and Spencer never makes it as anything but a cheater, and then Jess finds herself moving all of her life back up into the apartment she used to share with Cece because  _soulmates_ are forever and Spencer isn't forever.

—

Schmidt does  _not_ want a soulmate. "Believing you have a soulmate is like believing in Santa Claus," he says. "A complete waste of time."

"You're Jewish, that doesn't count for you. You're the one who told me Santa was my dad." Is Nick still bitter about that? Maybe.

"Your dad and The Man From The North Pole happened to have the same wrapping paper? Humph. Yeah.  _Okay_ , Nicholas."

"Eight-year-old-Nick thought they did, and you should've let him, Schmidty. You always ruin everything."

—

They're twenty-nine, and Schmidt doesn't have a soulmate, no tattoo,  _nothing_.

But Nick...

Nick's just... appears one day and his friends freak the hell out. "J.D.?" Winston's staring at Nick's wrist intensely as if the initials are going to disappear. They're not. Once they're there, well... "Has anything monumental even happened to you lately, man? I mean like, have you even left your room?"

Nick shakes his head. "I ran out to get toilet paper at the drugstore," he says like it's not important. (Mostly because it's not important.)

"Meet anyone there?" Winston asks, and Nick shrugs.

"Wait!", he yells after a few seconds, and both Schmidt and Winston set down their beers because this is serious. "I met this cute girl at the drugstore, but it was like, a two-second-thing. She just asked me if the brand I was holding was any good.

"...Of  _toilet paper_?" asks Schmidt.

"Well... yeah," Nick says, and Schmidt starts to laugh. "What, Schmidt? If you have something to say, say it buddy. You've been cutting ass on me since we were kids. I can handle it."

Schmidt holds up a finger to Nick dramatically and takes a swig of his beer. "One: If you could ditch toilet paper and use your hands to wipe, you would."

"Solid point," says Winston, and then Nick gives them both the finger.

"Two: If soulmates existed, you wouldn't meet them in a rundown  _drugstore_."

Nick squints and thinks about it for a second. "Yeah," he says, and he grabs himself a beer even though he's working and he's definitely not supposed to be drinking with the customers. He thinks about how cute she was - her black, circle glasses, the tights, the skirt, the way she tapped on his shoulder and said, "Umm... sir?". "You're right, Schmidty, maybe they don't exist."

J.D. stays on Nick's wrist, though, and he spends his entire eight-hour shift thinking of who the hell it could be. 

—

Cece kisses Sadie at the Christmas party and Jess nudges her after it's over. "Oh! Your wrist!", she shouts like it's brand new information that a permanent 'S' is tattooed on Cece's wrist.

Cece brushes it off, but she's blushing. "Sadie's not my soulmate, Jess," she says. "We were just... having fun."

"Check her wrist," Jess says, and she scopes the room for any sign of Sadie. "I bet it says 'C.P.'."

"I bet it doesn't, because Sadie's not my soulmate, and I'm starting to think this whole soulmate thing is a bunch of  _crap_."

Jess gasps, because Jess believes in love, and kissing in the rain, and cuddling up together on the sofa on rainy Saturdays. Jess is everything Cece is not, and that's probably why they love each other so much. (But no, they're not soulmates, even though sometimes Cece wishes her wrist said 'J.D.' because everything would be easier if your soulmate was your best friend in the entire world.)

—

Winston's crying in his room one day, and Nick doesn't even knock before he comes in. "Buddy," he says with a sigh, and then he kicks his shoes off before he sits on the bed, because Winston hates messes as much as Nick loves them. "Is this about the soulmate thing? Look, man, 'J.D.' probably doesn't even exist."

"You wanna know a secret, Nick?" Winston asks. Nick laughs, because a twenty-nine-year-old man is whispering, ' _You wanna know a secret, Nick_?' to him like they're eight years old again. 

"Sure, man," Nick says.

"I think everybody has a soulmate, but I don't think I do."

If Nick had a bigger heart, it'd be broken right now. He just frowns at Winston.

"I just... I have  _so_ much love to give, man, and everyone's out here finding their soulmates, and  _you_ and  _J.D_., and -"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Nick says, stopping him. "J.D.'s probably not real."

"But what if she is?"

Yeah. What if she is?

—

Nick still won't shut up about J.D. even though the guys beg him to shut up about J.D., and Schmidt says he's going to call a professional to, "Remove it, just  _remove it_ ". That's impossible, though, because once it's on there, it's there to stay, and J.D. must mean  _something_ , right?

"Worse comes to worse," Nick says one day when it's just he and Schmidt in the loft, "you can change your name to something super Jewish -- just make sure it's got the initials 'J.D.' -- and we can get married. I mean, you already yell at me to eat my vegetables enough."

"You're a growing boy and  _donut holes_ won't suffice," Schmidt says. "I'm just looking out for you."

"You always do, buddy, you always do."

—

It happens a day after Jess's thirtieth birthday. 

She's hungover, and  _crap_ , she's a teacher and it's a Tuesday and school starts in fifteen minutes and she has black eyeliner smudged all over her left cheek. She wiggles herself out of bed and finds something to wear, and the flats she slips on don't even  _match_ , and Cece and Sadie are passed out on her bedroom floor, but she'll deal with them later.

That's when she sees it.

At first, she thinks it's a joke, or that she's still drunk as shit from the night before. She's washing her hands, and then she tugs up the sleeve of her shirt, and  _whoa_. "N.M.?", she whispers to herself. "Who the..."

Cece stumbles into the bathroom. "Jess? I thought you left."

"I should've, but..." She's debating on whether or not to tell Cece. She knows Cece told her the second  _her_ initials appeared, and she knows Cece would want to know, but -- N.M.? Jess has never met an 'N' in her life. None. She knows an  'S', and a 'P', and an 'R', but no ' _N_ ''s. She puffs out her cheeks and stops herself. "I'm just heading out. There should be waffles in the freezer for you and Sadie. Don't throw up on our living room floor again."

Cece promises she won't, and then Jess blows her a kiss and leaves and doesn't think about N.M. on the way to school.

—

Schmidt laughs at Nick because he makes a dating profile on one of those ridiculous websites.

"You're not gonna find J.D. on there, my man," he says, and then he laughs because Nick used a Hemingway quote in his bio. "Stop trying to sound smart!"

"I  _am_ smart, I'm just lazy. But J.D. can't know that."

"Either J.D. wants the real you, or - or she don't," Schmidt tells him.

Nick deletes the profile a day later. 

—

They start hanging out at this bar downtown. It's called Clyde's, and Cece picked it, obviously. Jess would never come to a joint like  _this_.

"What the hell is a 'Guy's Night'?" Jess asks, pointing to a sign in the corner that reads, "GUYS DRINK FREE" underneath it. "Oh. I guess it's  _that_. That's stupid."

" _So_ stupid. Like, I actually have to pay for a cocktail? I'm sorry, Jess, I thought this place would be cool, but it's not, so let's - let's go."

Just then, this guy wearing pants one-size-too-tight comes over to the both of them. Jess smiles at him, but Cece doesn't, probably because she's really used to getting hit on in bars. "I  _told_ him it was stupid. 'Guy's Night'. Nicholas thinks he's smarter than everyone, but he has the IQ of a shoe. And not even a fancy, designer shoe, just like... a Converse."

"Just  _one_ Converse?" Jess asks, her eyes wide. This guy doesn't look like someone who'd ever come up to her in a bar, but he's handsome, and he's talking to her, and he's smiling, and she's about to ask him if he's N.M., if this is fate, if this is the end-all, be-all, but then --

" _You_ ," he says, and his eyes are scanning Cece. She looks terrified, but also disgusted. He rubs his lips together. "You're too beautiful to be hanging out in a bar like this. Why don't I, I don't know, keep you safe in my apartment? I wouldn't want any of these  _chumps_ hitting on you."

"You know what?" She shakes her head, and oh God, this guy's about to get an ass-kicking. Jess gets ready to duck - just in case. "One already did."

This guy doesn't look defeated, though. He laughs, and then he says, "Oh, okay, I see how it is". He clears his throat. "W-What's your name? I usually would've given up after like, two tries, but you might be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

Jess backs up a few inches, and she doesn't think Cece's going to answer him. "Cecelia. Um. Cece," she says coldly, and then she holds out her hand. "Yours is... Hold on, let me guess. I'm trying to think of something  _super_ douchey like - like  _Kyle_. Is it Kyle?"

He doesn't even look offended. "It's actually Schmidt."

Cece wrinkles her nose. "Wait, Schmidt is your... your first name?"

"It's my last name, actually," he says. "My first name is stupid, and no one even knows what it is anymore because I've just been 'Schmidt' for my entire life. Ask my friends. They're the weirdos over there by the keg." 

Cece waves a hand. "I-I'm good," she says, and then she turns around and tugs Jess by the wrist. "Jess," she whispers, "we need to get the hell out of here.  _Now_."

—

Cece hails them a cab  _so fast_ , and Jess is wobbling behind her because this is the first night in  _years_ she chose to wear four-inch-heels, and  _God_. "Cece!", she yells. "Slow. Down."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Cece apologizes once they're settled in the cab. "It's just... That's  _him_."

"That's  _who_? What, that douche? I mean, he was a nice douche, he was, like... I don't know, maybe he has a good backstory. Sad childhood or something."

Cece just looks like she's about to throw up, and she holds onto Jess's arm when the cab driver pulls away from the front of the bar. "That  _douche_ is my soulmate," she says like she's angry about it. "Oh my God. He's 'S'."

It takes Jess a few seconds, because she's had exactly three-and-a-half glasses of pink wine in the last hour, but -- "Oh my God. 'S'. Schmidt. 'S'!"

" _I knooow_. I wanna die."

"He was kind of handsome," Jess says, and  _hello_ , he's Cece's  _soulmate_. This is big. "Oh my God. Do you really think he's it, though?"

Cece throws her head in her hands and actually, legitimately starts to cry. Jess is too tipsy, or else she'd hold her, she really would.

"I think he is."

—

They go to Clyde's the weekend after Cece meets Schmidt, but mostly because Jess drags her there. "We  _have_ to know for sure!", she says, but Cece doesn't want to. This isn't what Cece pictured her soulmate being. God, what will Cece's  _mom_ think? 

They get all dressed up, because they  _can_. Jess is wearing this red, knee-length dress that Sadie helped her buy. She feels hot in it, but not  _too hot_. Cece puts on something sexy too because Jess makes her. They stroll into Clyde's arm-in-arm, and they don't see Schmidt anywhere.

"Let's go hangout by the counter," Jess suggests, pointing to the middle of the bar. "I bet that's where  _Schmidt_ hangs out."

Cece groans and follows Jess.

Schmidt isn't anywhere to be found, and Jess stops looking everywhere when one of the bartenders slides a drink her and Cece's way.

Cece isn't paying attention, because she's too busy secretly looking for Schmidt even though she'll lie and say he isn't, but Jess happily accepts a Manhattan from the bartender and says, "Thank you" with the glass already on her lips.

"You got it," the bartender says, and then he smiles at her. "I don't think you've ever been to Clyde's before, have you?"

Jess shakes her head and lifts the glass away from her mouth. "Once. Last weekend. We left kind of early because it was 'Guy's Night', which, by the way, not the best idea."

"Yeah, well, it was mine, so."

Jess widens her eyes. "I'm sorry! No. I am. It's - It was packed."

"Guys like beer," he says, and then he winks at her.

Jess happily sips her (free) Manhattan and checks her purse to make sure she has a decent amount of cash to tip the bartender. He starts to get busy and forgets about their two-second conversation, but Jess freaks out when he reaches his hand over the counter and grabs an empty glass of what was Scotch on the rocks from the guy next to her.

 _Oh my_ \--

The sleeves of his henley lift a little bit, and his left arm is exposed, and she has to blink three times just to make sure she's not just imagining that those are her initials on this random bartender's wrist.

She clears her throat and he almost catches her staring. "Umm... sorry, I just," she gulps, "could I get a refill?"

Her glass isn't even empty, but the bartender shrugs and smiles at her again. "'Course," he says in a scruffy voice. "What was your name?"

Jess wants to lie to him because he can't  _know_ , because what if he's happily married to another J.D., and here she is, thinking for a second about Her and Bartender and  _The Wrist_. She sees no wedding ring when she looks, but what if he like, takes it off so it doesn't end up in someone like Jess's Manhattan? 

"K-Katie," she lies, and he squints at her. "Katie."

—

Sadie finds her soulmate. The initials just appear, and then she meets Melissa in the bread aisle at the grocery store and all of a sudden they're  _in love_ , and they won't stop kissing in Jess and Cece's living room, and --

"Ugh. I kind of want that," Cece says, and she tangles her fingers in Jess's. "Like... They're just so  _happy_."

"Well..." Jess says, and she's giving her that  _face_ , the one that says to camp out at Clyde's until Schmidt comes back.

"I know, but like, I don't think we'd ever be  _that_ happy. Besides, I shook his hand and there were no initials on his wrist. I checked."

"Maybe you didn't check hard enough," suggests Jess, and Cece insists that she did, and there were  _none_. "Remember, they don't appear until you're ready for them to appear."

"Well, I don't know, 'S' would be ready, right?" Cece asks, and she looks down at her own wrist and runs a finger over the pronounced ink. "I mean, I am."

Jess squeezes Cece's hand. "Yeah, you're ready for 'S', but that doesn't mean he's ready for you."

—

'S'  _definitely_ isn't ready for Cece.

They go to Clyde's, her and Jess and Sadie and Melissa, and Jess happily third-wheels her friends because Cece's about to talk to  _The One_ again.

They find a table in the back corner, and Cece doesn't show Schmidt her wrist. "So...", she says, "You don't seem like a very serious guy."

He laughs so hard he almost spits out his beer. "If this is your way of finding out if my tattoo's appeared yet," he says, "it hasn't."

"Mmm."

"And I don't know if it ever will, because I kind of think this whole 'Soulmate' thing is a bunch of crap."

Cece blushes and tugs down her sleeve even farther. 

"Has yours?" Schmidt asks, and Cece just squints at him. 

Cece lies. "Nope. I kind of don't want it to. I just... Maybe I'll meet someone better, you know?"

 _Please, please, please_.

"Like me?" His lips are curled, and he sets down his beer and almost smirks at her. She ignores the fact that she thinks he's handsome because he's also not  _it_ ; he can't be. 

When Cece turns around, Jess is at the bar throwing her a thumbs-up. Of course. "I don't know, Schmidt. I don't think you're my type."

"Then who is?"

She actually can't answer that. "Um." She plays with the cherry on top of her drink. Schmidt ordered it for her, and he insisted on paying, and she's mad at herself because she  _let him_. "I-I have to tell you something, but you can't freak out at me, and you can't throw a drink in my face."

" _Please_ ," he says, his eyes wide. "This shirt is Calvin Klein. What if some gets on me? I wouldn't."

She rolls her eyes at him.

"I wouldn't, Cecelia," he says again, but more serious this time.

—

"So I showed him my arm outside and he freaked out and he started to pace around in circles and I think he's scared of me and I also think he's lying and has another girl's name on his wrist even though he showed me his arm two-thousand times but I just have this feeling that he's my soulmate but I'm not his and -"

Jess throws an arm around Cece's backside. They're out on the sidewalk of Clyde's, just the two of them and the darkness and a little bit too much liquor on their lips. "When did I become the one who has to calm you down? It's usually the opposite."

"The thing is... I think I could love Schmidt, Jess."

Jess bites her lip. "I know, Ceec. Soulmates are  _scary_."

—

Jess goes to Clyde's alone, just her, no Cece because Schmidt hangs out at Clyde's and NO. She's wearing something more modest this time -- her usual cardigan-skirt-flats combo. 

It's empty because it's a Wednesday, but she almost loses her shit when she sees  _him_ behind the counter.

"Katie!", he yells, waving a hand at her. He throws a dirty rag over his shoulder and grabs a glass from the table behind him. "Manhattan?"

Jess --  _ahem_ ,  _Katie_ , -- shakes her head. "A beer, maybe?"

"You got it," he says, and then he's smiling at her in a way that makes her want to yell out her initials to him  _right now_ and see what happens. She doesn't, though, because he's probably happy and she's  _Katie_.

"Here ya' go, Katie," he says, setting down her drink. "It's nice to see you around here on a random Wednesday. The crowd usually consists of: Oldies and fatties. Not trying to be mean, just truthful. It's... I don't know. Refreshing. You're the best thing to look at in here."

Jess blushes and tries not to freak out about this because he's not N.M. She looks down at her wrist subtly and tells herself the wait will be worth it. "Thank you," she says after a few seconds. She means it. Men don't hit on her often, not men like  _this_ anyway. Usually scary-looking forty-something teachers at her school, sure, but not -- You know. 

"I mean it," he says. "And you're welcome."

"Wait!", she yells out before he can go and help another customer. "I never got your name."

"O-Oh." He's laughing at her. "Nick. Nick Miller."

—

Jess is half-drunk when she gets out of the cab and up to her and Cece's apartment, and she stumbles up the stairs until she falls onto the couch and screams. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" 

She's head-first in a pillow when Cece exits her bedroom. "What the fuck, Jess? I thought we were getting robbed. Are you okay?"

"Um." Jess sits up now, and her face is a mess of booze-stained lips and smudged mascara, and now she's about to cry. "I met N.M."

"Oh my - Are you serious?"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh,  _yeah_. And the only reason I know is because I looked at his wrist when he was pouring drinks and it said 'J.D'."

"Oh my God. Did you tell him?!"

"One problem..." Jess says, and Cece's already face palming. "He thinks my name is Katie."

"What the -  _Why_? Jess! This is your  _soulmate_."

" _I_ _know_ , but I saw it before I knew his name and I thought he was already happy with some other J.D. and that there was no way in hell he was N.M. in any way, so I just - I lied about my name."

"But if you didn't..."

"If I didn't, me and -  _my soulmate_."

"Your  _soulmate_..."

"I know."

—

You're supposed to fall in love right away when you meet your soulmate, but sometimes, the world sucks and rules suck and soulmates don't even feel like they exist.

Jess drinks at the bar two more times, both times as 'Katie', and she lets Nick talk to her and tell her how pretty she is and ask her what she does, and one night it's 3 A.M. and they're supposed to be closing, but Nick's laughing with Katie about  _whatever_ and he leans over the bar and tries to kiss her goodnight.

"I-I can't," she says, and he looks defeated, but also understanding, because the initial on his wrist doesn't say 'K'. "It's just..."

"The soulmate thing," he says knowingly. "Who's yours?"

She bites the inside of her cheek and pretends Cece's her soulmate, pretends her best friend's initials are tattooed on her wrist, because if best friends could be soulmates, Cece would be hers anyway, so... "C.P. He's... fantastic."

Nick sighs. "I bet," he says, and then he rolls up his sleeve and flashes his left wrist in Jess's --  _Katie's_ \-- face. "Mine's J.D., but apparently, she doesn't exist."

If she weren't wasted right now (or Katie, that too), she'd  _sob_ , she really would. "I don't know, she's probably out there," she says, and Nick looks like he wants to believe her.

—

Cece starts sleeping with Schmidt on this random Monday, and Jess is really confused when Cece explains the whole thing to her.

"He doesn't have a name on his wrist," she says, and then when Jess looks skeptical, Cece reminds her that she's seen  _all of him_. "Seriously. It just... Hasn't come yet."

"And when it does?" Jess grills. "Ceec! What if it's not yours? Wouldn't that kill you?"

Cece looks down at her plate and then up to Jess, her eyes shifting. "Um... No. Because we're just, you know, it's just sex."

" _Ha_. With your  _soulmate_."

"You've had sex with Not-Your-Soulmate before. Did that kill you?"

"Well, no, because none of them were my soulmate," Jess says pointedly, and then she's thinking about Nick a little too hard.

—

Jess walks in on Cece and Schmidt one day after school, the two of them just posted up in the living room going at it on the couch. She covers her eyes and runs to the bathroom, and then when she comes back out, Schmidt is gone and Cece looks upset.

"I'm sorry," Jess apologizes, hugging an arm around Cece once she's got the blanket over her naked body all the way. "I know you really love him."

"It's  _just_ sex," Cece insists, and Jess wiggles an eyebrow at her. "Jess."

"What? His wrist will say 'C.P.' soon enough, I know it."

—

His wrist doesn't say C.P., and it's been two months of nonstop sexsexsex, and Cece wants a  _boyfriend_ or a  _husband_ or -- You know, a soulmate.

"I reconnected with my ex-girlfriend," Schmidt tells her. "Her wrist doesn't say anything, and neither does mine, but we really - we really had something and I'd be stupid if I didn't _try_. I'm sorry."

Cece cries and cries and cries and tells Jess that she doesn't think an 'E' would look good on Schmidt's wrist.

—

Cece and Jess drink it off at the bar; Schmidt, the obnoxious middle schoolers Jess teaches, everyone else but  _them_ finding love etched in little tattoos.

Nick's there, and his eyes don't meet Jess's or Katie's or anywhere near her, probably because he's embarrassed or tired of wasting time. He slides a drink down to Cece though, and then she laughs. 

"I actually ordered that one for Jess," she says, because God forbid someone thinks  _she'd_ order a piña colada. Nick widens his eyes, and then Cece just points. "Jess!", she shouts a little louder, because the bar is noisy. "My friend, Jess. Jess, Jess, _Jess_!"

"Cece, you're  _drunk_ ," Jess says once she realizes what's going on. Cece doesn't know who Nick is, but now Nick knows who she is, and -- "It's Katie!", she shouts before Nick can piece anything together. "You'll have to excuse my friend. She actually ordered real liquor tonight, so..."

Nick's not having it, though. He inches in closer to Jess, as close as two people can get between inches and inches of oak. "W-What's your name?" he asks, and his eyes are narrow on hers.

" _Katie_ ," Jess says, because she's already ruined enough.

"I don't think so," Nick insists.

Jess says nothing, just sips her drink slowly.

"Are you - I'm sorry, I just -" Nick lifts up his sleeve, and  _oh God_ , he's going there, and she didn't think he'd go there a second time. "I'm kind of scared to show you this again because you probably think I'm like, batshit crazy, but when we met, I just - If your name is Jess, what's your -"

Cece nudges her harshly and whispers, " _Tell him_ ".

"Um. Is there - Is there somewhere we could go?" Jess asks.

Nick looks like he's about to say 'no', but to Jess's surprise, he sets the glasses he's holding down and says, "A rundown bar bathroom. That good enough for ya'?"

"Great."

—

"I saw your wrist when you were working and I freaked out because I figured I couldn't be  _the_ J.D. and that you were like, I don't know - What if you were married with kids and a dog and a Volvo? I couldn't intervene. Most guys I talk to  _are_."

"I'm..." Nick shakes his head, and he's pressed up against a stall in the men's bathroom with his  _soulmate_. "I live with two dudes in a loft and the only thing I can cook is  _toast_. No. No wife, kids, dog, Volvo."

"But are..." Jess pauses, and she joins him, her butt against the stall and her arms folded underneath her chest. "There could be other J.D.'s."

"There  _could_ ," he says, "but I don't know how many soulmate stories you've heard."

"Tons. Try me."

"No, I just mean - You kind of know when you know, don't you?" 

Jess squints at him. "Do you - Do you know?"

Nick is scared to answer her, because Nick is scared of everything.

—

"I met my soulmate," Nick says -- blurts out, actually.

The guys are surrounded by beer and chips and wings and a game they're now all not focused on. 

Schmidt drops his chips. "Wait. For real? Deets, please."

Nick nods and mutes the TV. "For real. At Clyde's."

"Oh goodness, is  _everyone_ meeting at Clyde's now? Is Clyde's The Secret Soulmate Headquarters? I mean..."

"Get over it, man," Winston says, nudging Schmidt in the side. "You screwed up with Cece, and now you're with Eliz -"

"But I'm not," Schmidt interrupts, and then the guys ask him what the hell happened, because two days ago Elizabeth and Schmidt were more than vocal about their all-nighter in Schmidt's bedroom. "Another dude's name appeared on her wrist. Just like that. No 'S' anywhere."

"Are you like..." Nick's no good at this sappy shit. He takes a sip of his beer and pulls Schmidt in by the shoulder. "Are you good?"

"Don't worry about me," he says with a sigh. "What happened with you? You met her? Was she like...  _normal_? I don't know, I mean, let's face it, all the girls you go out with are straight up wonky, Nick."

Nick sighs. "You know what? She's actually best friends with Cece, and at first she was like, 'I'm Katie!', and then I tried to kiss Katie, but then Cece told me her name was Jess, and then Jess told me her name was Jess, Jess Day, and she's my soulmate, I think."

"You  _thin_ _k_? Well, duh, you can't be sure with a story like that one! You're just... You're an awful storyteller, Nicholas."

"I'm a great storyteller, you dumbass," Nick says, hitting Schmidt on the arm. "Anyway, I met her, and she's great but I don't think she thinks she's the one."

"Well yeah, she probably saw you and ran, man," Winston jokes. Schmidt high-fives him for that. "You don't even have a bank account, dude."

"Dude, shut up, I have a piggy bank from 1997 and it's  _heavy_. Now can you listen?"

"Wait... the story wasn't done?" Schmidt asks in disbelief, and then he hangs his head back and pretends to yawn. "Guys, how do I get Cece to sleep with me again?"

—

Jess's friend Paul and his soulmate Jenn are getting divorced. Divorced. Their names are on the inside of each other's wrists forever, but they just don't love each other anymore, and Jess cries when Paul tells her and then Paul starts to cry too.

She starts to think this whole concept is fake, is  _shit_ , and she doesn't go to Clyde's for awhile.

—

Things happen for Winston quicker than they happen for anyone else, but everyone's really happy for him because he deserves a soulmate. (But mostly so he can stop crying to Nick about not having one five times a week.)

Aly's initials appear on his wrist after their first five cases as partners, and once they do, he blurts it out to her because he's Winston and he's not afraid of getting hurt. It sucks, obviously, but he's so used to it and he's not scared.

Winston rolls up his sleeves and says, "A.N. That's you. See?", and he's kind of afraid because Aly's tough and she's honest and she's beautiful -- and also his friend. Seriously. They took drinks when they first got partnered up and said, "Friends?" "Friends.".

Aly looks embarrassed, but she rolls up her sleeves too and says, "W.B. It's been there for awhile. I just... I guess..."

Winston kisses her before she can finish talking, and  _God_ , he's in love and he has a soulmate and he won't shut up about it.

—

Schmidt tries apologizing to Cece with a fancy box of chocolates.

Jess opens the apartment door and widens her eyes. "Schmidt! Hey." She secretly hopes it'd be Nick, but then she remembers Nick doesn't know where she lives. "Um. Cece's in the bathroom. Are those -" She pauses and scans the box of chocolates. "For Cece?"

Schmidt nods. "Elizabeth and I broke things off. Well, you know, she did. These initials just... appeared on her wrist one night and they weren't mine but I only cried about it for like, a day-and-a-half."

Jess breathes out a laugh. "Yeah, well..."

"Do you think Cece wants to see me?" he asks.

"Um, probably not, but you can  _try_ ," Jess advises, and then she invites Schmidt inside. "Ceec!", she calls out, knocking on the bathroom door. "Come on, someone's here to see you!"

Cece comes out of the bathroom with daggers for eyes, and Jess whispers, "Be nice" to her. Her eyes suddenly get all soft when she looks at Schmidt though, and Jess thinks that's what happens when you look at your soulmate, even if you want to kill them. 

"H-Hi Schmidt," she says coldly, her hands at her side. She instantly thinks about Elizabeth. "I'm guessing the whole Elizabeth thing didn't work out."

Jess steps out of the room to give them some privacy, but she's also _Jess_ , so she has to keep quiet and listen-in from the kitchen.

"Yeah, well, it was kind of doomed from the start."

Cece bites down on her lip and takes the box of chocolates even though she won't eat Jess's cakes because: _"I'm a model Jess. I have to lose four pounds by the end of the week. No cake."_ "Thanks for this," she says to Schmidt, "but it doesn't make up for the fact that you were a  _dick_."

"Okay, maybe not, but maybe - I don't know, maybe we can be friends, Cece. I'd like that, because I like you, and I don't - I don't want to stop seeing you."

Cece looks down at the floor. "Until your tattoo appears," she says almost bitterly. "Yeah. Friends. Thanks, Schmidt."

—

Jess decides to go to Clyde's again after two-and-a-half weeks of not going. She drags Cece with her, but Cece doesn't mind, because she and Schmidt are  _friends_ now.

They sit in that corner booth again and Jess looks over and they're  _laughing_ and she's never seen anyone look at Cece in her entire thirty years the way Schmidt's looking at Cece in this bar right now. (Jess doesn't intervene, though, because you can't force true soulmates.)

"Hey Jess."

He slides a Manhattan at her, and she's about to lie and say she didn't come to drink. "H-Hi Nick."

"That's not free just because you're my soulmate, you know," he says, pointing at the glass. "I kind of have to stop giving away free drinks. My manager yelled at me in front of everyone yesterday. I got so embarrassed I almost wet my pants. Please don't tell."

Jess wrinkles her nose and laughs. "Soulmate's honor."

"Sooo..." Nick says after what feels like an hour. "What's - What's up?"

Jess sighs. She wants Nick to be her soulmate because it feels like he's supposed to be, but they also aren't connecting like they're soulmates; no 'instant  _boom_ ' like the one her mom described in her story eighteen years ago.

Nick must know what Jess is thinking, because after what feels like another hour, he clears his throat and leans over the bar, his eyes on Jess. "You don't have to say 'yes', but if you're really my soulmate, I kind of have to take you out."

She plays with the top of her drink for a second before shyly looking up at Nick, biting the inside of her cheek. "I kind of have to say yes, don't I?" she says.

—

They do it all backwards, but that's okay -- Sometimes, Soulmate Stories have twists and turns. Jess's has a lot.

They have a date on Saturday night, but Jess can't wait until Saturday night to see Nick, so on Thursday she finds herself at Clyde's with two empty glasses and then in an empty bathroom stall and --

Nick's tugging her tights off, but before he does he whispers how sexy they are to her. No one's ever called her outfits  _sexy_ before. 'Juvenile', maybe, but not 'sexy'. "Oh my God," he says once they're on the bathroom floor. "You're just... You..."

Soulmates are supposed to be at a loss for words when they're describing each other, right?

Jess nods fervently and takes Nick's face in her hands, sucking at his jawline. "You're... You too," she says quickly.

Nick's hard against her middle, and he lifts her up so high against the stall, and she moans his name like she's been moaning it forever.

They're undressed but she doesn't have sex with him even though he's probably ninety-nine percent her soulmate. She's waiting.

—

Jess doesn't tell Cece what happened Thursday night. She walks into the apartment at 3 A.M., her heels in her hands and her hair a mess, and Cece's on the couch with a book.

"Where were you, killer?" Cece asks, not even looking up from her book.

"Um. A-At my sister's," she lies, and Cece buys it and Jess goes right to bed and tries not to think about her soulmate when she sleeps.

—

Jess goes to this party at Sadie's friend's friend's friend's on Friday. Whatever. It can't hurt.

There's an 'N.M' there, a legit, real, in-the-flesh 'N.M'. Jess doesn't even hear his first name over the music, but Sadie's like, "This is him, J!" and then she pushes the two of them together, because no one told her about Nick and she wants Jess to find her soulmate already.

Jess is about to tell him to go away, or that she's married, or pregnant, or _something_ to make him leave. He tugs her forward and smiles sweetly at her, and then he shows her his arm. 

"Umm... there's nothing there!", Jess shouts, almost relieved. 

"I know, but Sadie tells me you -"

"I'm sorry, I - THE MUSIC," she says, and she starts to shout. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU."

"SADIE TELLS ME YOU HAVE N.M. ON YOU.  _I'M_ N.M."

Jess winces and pulls away, but N.M. still has a grip on her wrist. "I'm... You're not... My N.M. is not  _you_."

—

Jess almost regrets being so cold to N.M. at Sadie's friend's friend's friend's, because you never do know, but it's Saturday and Nick, her _real_ N.M., is meeting her at this place down the block from her and Cece's.

She shows up at 7:40 because she's always early, it's her thing, and she starts to freak out when it's 7:45 and Nick isn't anywhere to be seen. They said they'd meet on the sidewalk.

7:51. "Hey, I'm - I'm never early to things," he says, and he's being honest. "I'm just not. You should know that. Wow, Jess, you look..."

His eyes are wide, and she blushes, and really, this dress is a hand-me-down from Cece and it's kind of baggy in the boob area but Nick checks her out for a long time and then holds a thumbs-up at her. 

"I was trying to say you looked amazing but I freaked out and did a thumbs-up at ya'," he says.

"I saw," she says.

They go inside, and Nick lets his hand slide onto the small of her back, and it feels so natural Jess almost doesn't realize he does it. That's how it's supposed to feel when your  _soulmate_ touches you, she thinks, and then she thinks back to last night at Sadie's friend's friend's friend's when Fake N.M. tugged her in to dance with him and she wants to  _puke_.

At dinner, Nick tells her everything about himself, even the bad parts.

"I dropped out of law school, but not because I wasn't good at being a lawyer, I just didn't like it. My dad had an Elvis themed funeral when he died, and I  _kind of_ want to copy him. Sometimes, people see me and Schmidt on the street and think we're gay, and I'll say we are because one time I said, "Ew, no way, man!" and Schmidt cried for two days straight."

When the check comes, Jess reaches her hand across the table and brushes it over Nick's. "I think," she says, taking a breath, "that you're my N.M."

"I know J.D., I know."

—

They don't rush it. Nick's skeptical about 'Soulmates', and Jess is afraid of settling for the wrong N.M. even though she's almost sure he's it. After their date, Nick kisses her goodnight slowly even though he's seen her undressed and they've  _touched_ and  _moaned_ and -- "Goodnight, Jessica," he says, letting his lips linger on hers. "It was... You know... As amazing as it was supposed to be."

—

Jess remembers her mom's story really well. Joan saw him first, and then Bob saw Joan, and Bob had Joan's initials on his wrist two days before Joan had 'B.D.' on hers. They kissed inside of the bar and then they had sex on the rooftop -- although Joan left that out in the version she told Jess and Cece when they were twelve -- and then that was it. They were soulmates, and they were Happily Ever Freaking After. Nothing's that easy anymore, Jess thinks, because everyone's scared and people are getting  _divorced_ but the tattoos are still there.

—

Winston's really good at being a soulmate.

No, like, there's framed pictures of Aly in his bedroom, and he holds her hand when they're on line at the grocery store, and when she's not there, he finds ways to bring her up to his friends -- (and annoy them, certainly annoy them). 

Nick says, "I'm actually kind of jealous of you, man. I never thought that day would come."

"Why?" Winston looks concerned. "Are things not going well with Jess? I thought she was your J.D., man."

"I thought she was too, but she's taking it slow and I'm taking it slow and there's - I swear to God there was a reason I made her a drink that night but I just don't know how to convince her of that. Or me. I need some convincing on this whole soulmate shit too."

—

"So you like being Schmidt's friend?"

They hangout too much for 'Not-Soulmates'. Like, yesterday he picked her up and took her to the aquarium and they didn't even kiss or hold hands or  _anything_. Just... looked at a bunch of fish together.

Cece's lying through her teeth. "Yeah."

"Ceec. Stop. Go tell him you don't care whose name is on his wrist."

"That defeats the whole 'soulmate' thing, no?"

"I mean... Maybe one day it will just... You know..."

Cece bites her lip and shakes her head. "I really, really want him to be my 'S', Jess," she says, and she's about to cry right there in the living room.

—

Jess visits Clyde's before they're closed for the night, and only Nick is behind the counter scrubbing at the countertops.

"Hey," she says, waving from the corner. She's glad no one's here, because she's in a baseball tee and glasses and her hair's up in a bun. "I had fun on Saturday."

"Me too, Jess," he says, looking at her for only a second before turning around to wash a bucket full of glasses. "You should get goin' though. It's late."

—

One day, Schmidt wakes up the entire house with a scream, and Nick's only instinct is to race out of his bedroom with a fire extinguisher. 

Schmidt stops his wailing and looks at Nick from the living room with a raised eyebrow. "What did you think I was doing out here, Nicholas?"

"Um, last time you screamed like that you burned scones in our oven, so..."

"I'm  _screaming_ ," he says, "because of this." He walks over to Nick with a skip in his step and rolls up the sleeve on his left side.

"Holy shit. Wow. That's - Are you - Are you happy, man?" Nick asks as enthusiastically as someone can ask a question at seven in the damn morning.

Schmidt just nods frantically. "I have to go show her."

—

Schmidt  _runs_ to Cece and Jess's apartment, and it's seven-thirty in the morning and he's never run this fast in his entire life -- except for that one time he signed up for the city marathon and _had_ to beat his older, bigger, stronger cousin Big Schmidt of course.

Jess swings open the door, because she's a morning person and Cece probably doesn't get up until 11 A.M. 

"J-Jess," he breathes out, his hands on his knees, all hunched over and sweaty at their apartment door. "You have to go - go get Cece."

"Ha! Try waking Cece up before noon and she'll bite your hand off.  _You_ have to go get her."

" _I_ have to surprise her," he says, and he's shaking his head dramatically. "Please."

He actually looks serious, so Jess says, "Whoa, okay, wait, what's going on? If you did something douchey, just tell me and I'll pass it on to her. I'd rather her not come out of her room and cut your balls off at... What time is it?"

"Seven-thirty," he says lowly.

" _Seven-thirty_? What the hell was so important that you had to sprint to our apartment at seven-thirty in the -"

Schmidt cuts her off and rolls up his sleeve. " _This_."

Jess doesn't know what to say, so she kind of lets out this scream loud enough to wake the entire building up. "Sorry! Sorry. I just - I knew it."

"Do you enjoy being right like... way more than the average human being?" he asks her just as Cece's coming out of her bedroom.

Jess nods. "Yes, yes I do, now go show her your arm and fix this mess."

And he does. Schmidt wordlessly holds his arm out to a half-asleep Cece who's all, "Umm, what are you showing me, did you get a bruise at the aquarium the other day or something?"

Schmidt's breathing is labored. Mostly from the running, but also from the whole 'Finding Your Soulmate  _For Real_ ' thing. "Cecelia," he says, " _look_."

She doesn't have her contacts in, so she squints at his arm for a second, and then her face drops. "C.P.," she says, and Schmidt just nods and says, "Uh-huh."

"That's - Those - Those are -"

"I know."

Cece starts to cry, because she's tough and brave and takes no shit but she's also  _in love_ and she also has a  _soulmate_.

—

Nick invites Jess back to his place after a long night at Clyde's, and she goes because everyone else is happy and she's trying to let herself be happy too.

He brings her to the roof, and she holds her breath about how romantic it actually is up there. There's plants and string lights and tables and chairs and pillows. 

"I can't believe  _Schmidt_ has a soulmate," Nick says once they sit down on these two wooden chairs by the edge. " _Schmidt_. He hates soulmates. Once he told me he hoped the 'J.D.' on my wrist meant, 'Jumbo Dick', and that it'd finally give me initiative to come out. Oh. I'm -- I'm not  _gay_."

Jess scrunches her nose. "I know, Nick."

"And now he's downstairs, screwing your best friend's brains out. Our best friends! Like. What are the chances?"

Jess swallows, and Nick knows why. He knows it's because she doesn't believe he's her actual N.M.; that this is all too big of a coincidence and Cece and Schmidt and he and Jess can't  _both_ be soulmates. 

"Jess, come on, I didn't - Do you really not feel it?"

Her hand lingers in his lap then, and she sucks in her breath. "No, I  _do_ , I so do, but I guess I thought it'd be... different."

He raises an eyebrow but he lets his hand find hers, twisting his fingers around hers. "Different?"

"I feel so scared of you, of - of letting this happen," she says, and he looks upset or pissed off or maybe indifferent, but she's just being honest.

He laughs, though. "I'm scared of everything, Jess. The ocean, bikes with one wheel, that green sauce at Chipotle. I'm scared of this whole... soulmate thing."

Jess doesn't know what to say back, or she doesn't  _want_ to say anything back. She just leans in and kisses him, kissing him like a Soulmate is supposed to kiss a Soulmate. It's intense, and when her lips touch Nick's she breathes all of him in, and her stomach starts to hurt, and this, --  _this_ is how kissing your soulmate is supposed to feel. It is.

—

Cece and Schmidt tell Jess they're getting married, and she screams first because she's happy for them, for her best friend of forever, and second because  _WHAT_? 

"You have your whole lives to be soulmates," Jess says, watching the way Schmidt holds onto Cece's hand. "Isn't this kind of... fast?"

Cece's the one who shakes her head and cuts Jess off. "We want to start now," she says, looking over at Schmidt. "We wasted so much time being... You know... messy and stubborn and not together. We just want to be together."

Jess sighs, but she doesn't tell them not to go through with it, because  _soulmates_.

—

Jess is right about Soulmate Kisses feeling different, better,  _crazier_ than Other Kisses.

They do other things, obviously. The way she comes against his mouth drives him wild every time, and she even goes down on him behind the counter at Clyde's one night, but  _God_ , when she kisses Nick it's...

"Ceec, is it lame to call a kiss 'electric'?"

"Oh. One-hundred percent," Cece says. "But if that's how you feel, well then... Call it electric, babe."

—

Nick says I love you first. 

He doesn't mean to yet, and he kind of just blurts it out so quickly he  _could've_ gotten away with it if he were quieter, but he wasn't and Jess hears it.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes right after it happens, and he's paranoid that she's just going to get out of the passenger side of his car and run and never talk to him again.

"Don't be," Jess says, and she pats his lap. "You're my soulmate."

—

Life isn't perfect, so Jess doesn't say it back until three hours later.

He drops her off at her apartment and let's her go upstairs, and then she turns to Cece who's in the kitchen reading wedding magazines and goes, "Oh my God, I didn't say it  _back_ , Cece!", and she hides her face in her hair and groans. 

Cece sets down her magazine and wrinkles her nose at Jess. "Wait, did he - You're talking about an 'I love you' here, right? Catch me up."

Jess nods shamefully. "I-I have to go say it back."

"Well, wait, hold on." Cece stands up from the kitchen table and crosses her arms underneath her chest. "Do you?"

Jess's lips are pressed together and she says, "Yes. Yes! No, Cece, like, he's it. He's my soulmate."

Cece freaks out then. "THEN GO!"

"I'M GOING!" Jess says, and she bends down to put back on the flats she just toed off. 

—

"Nicholas Miller," she says when she gets to Clyde's. Then she clears her throat and cups her hands over her mouth like a megaphone. "N.M.? Attention, anyone named N.M. with a 'J.D.' tattoo on his left wrist is needed up front -"

Nick hops over the counter and shakes his head at her. "You're ridiculous, Jess. What are you doing? It's 2 A.M."

Jess finds his hands despite the dim lights of the bar and takes them in hers. "I love you," she says almost so effortlessly -- better than the I love you's she's said to Spencer or to Ryan or that one guy from that  _Dice_ app she blurted it out to last year. 

"Jess, you didn't -"

"But I did," she says, her breath staggered. "I love you, Nick Miller."

—

One of her students stops her in the hallway on Monday and asks, "You look really nice today, Miss Day! Does that mean you found your soulmate?"

Jess is confused, mostly at how a thirteen-year-old can tell  _she_ , Jessica Day, has a soulmate. "Um. Aww. Unfortunately I'm not legally allowed to answer that, Crystal," she says, to keep it safe.

"I get it," Crystal says, "but my mom says you can  _always_ tell when someone finds theirs."

—

"Do you ever wish it would've worked out differently?"

Jess and Cece are sitting in their living room, Indian-style on pillows by the coffee table, just braiding each other's hair and drinking rosé.

Cece says, "Hold still" and gives Jess's hair a tug, and then she says, "Not at all. Do you? Please say you don't, because you love Nick and he's literally yours for life."

"Unless he pulls a Paul on me," Jess says with a laugh. She wonders how Paul and Jenn are doing. Have they found new soulmates? Do they cover up their tattoos with makeup every morning?

" _Unless_ he pulls a Paul on you," Cece repeats, and then she secures Jess's hair with an elastic. "Are you happy, Jess?"

"You know what Cece, I am. I think mine and Nick's story beats my mom's, at this point," she says.

Cece sighs, probably remembering that time they pestered Joan into telling them all about soulmates, and crazy love, and doing it on rooftops. "It's a good story. Mine too."

—

Jess and Nick set up sleeping bags on the roof, because they want to feel five-years-old again, but also because sleeping bags are still cool when you're thirty and in love and like to hangout on rooftops.

"When did yours appear?" Jess asks, and she takes a finger and traces it along Nick's wrist, tracing the letters over and over and over again. "Like, do you remember when?"

"It was random," he says with a shrug, inching in closer to her. "The only thing I did that week was go to the drugstore." 

Jess laughs. "Mmm. Maybe you met a hottie there. Made you wanna settle down."

Nick chuckles and shakes his head. "Maybe, but more like a girl who tapped on my shoulder and asked me what brand of toilet paper I was holding, and whether or not it was any good."

"I-I've done that in drugstores before," she says, almost floored, and now she's sitting up and Nick's confused. 

"How... How many times?"

She holds up a single finger first, and then whispers, "Just once."

"Oh my God."

" _I know_."

"Do you think -"

"Soulmates _do_ exist, Nick, and so does fate, and you were my soulmate before either of us knew. I mean, there was a reason I asked you about toilet paper, there had to be. I don't ask strangers for toilet paper advice on a daily basis, I just don't. Okay, no, well  _sometimes_ I do, but you - you were different."

He nods slowly, and Jess's half-naked body curls up against his. It's cold, and they pushed their sleeping bags together early on because why wouldn't they have? Nick slides a hand across the small of her back and pulls her into him, his lips lingering on her forehead for a second. "Jess," he says, like it's the first time he's ever said her name. "This was supposed to happen."

—

Thirteen years later, Jess and Nick tell the story of soulmates to their twelve-year-old. She's, " _So_ readyto hear it mom, I swear. And don't leave out any details! If you do, dad will just tell me while you're in the shower. Right dad?"

Nick shrugs. Um. Obviously. 

Jess starts; starts with the bar, and the Katie, and the J.D. and the N.M., -- and she leaves out the part about sneaking off to the bathroom because her daughter is twelve and she's not about to give her any ideas.

"Basically," Jess says, and she takes a breath and looks over at Nick the same way she's looked at him for more than thirteen years. "One day, I just... knew."

"That dad was it for you?", their daughter eagerly asks, and God, Jess is having flashbacks to her own first Soulmate Story.

"That soulmates are one-hundred percent real," Jess says, and then she reaches a hand over and brushes it over Nick's still-prominent tattoo.


End file.
